Sunday, January 31, 2016

Sex in the heartlands

How often do you see a hunky male model in skimpy underwear posing for the camera in a public park deep in the Singaporean heartlands? Well today you will get a glimpse of this unusual scene.

To catch the morning light the photographer, his assistant and I met at Bishan Park not too far from where I was staying and made our way to a particular location filled with elderly folks going about their morning exercise routines. Without a care in the world, I stripped down to my underwear and prepped my body with some static exercises and light oil-application and then we began shooting. As a professional amateur model, this routine is all too common for me but this is my first-ever shoot in the heartlands so I decided to give it a go despite the photographer being a rather inexperienced one. Also I have been visiting Singapore a little too often ever since I started my fly-in/fly-out work assignment. This made the recent trips back home a little boring at times and since photo shoots are one of my favourite past times, I decided to organise one.

The shoot started well enough but it started to go downhill quite quickly. At one point the photographer wanted me to lie flat in a shallow marsh without having a clear idea if what he had in mind would even work. I did not want to risk getting myself all soiled for a maybe so I refused to get in the swampy section of the (fake) river despite his numerous pesky attempts to push me into doing it. The sun was also getting a little toasty and I was getting increasingly impatient with the photographer after the assistant left early leaving me alone with him and my frustrations. Then it got too hot to continue and I turned down a request to move to another location for more snaps. It is rare for me to say no to an opportunity for more shots so you can imagine how unhappy I was that morning. We then parted ways at a nearby bus stop but that was not the end of the irritation.

When I got the final edits, I was shocked to only receive six pictures. His reason for that was many of them were repetitive and with the wrong facial expression and he needed to protect his image and brand. He also blamed that on me rejecting his suggestion to move to another location for more shots. To make matters worse, the ones he selected were those that I did not like and when I tried to ask for more, the argument online went a little ugly. Suffice to say I did not get what I wanted and that shoot became my worst ever (well, one out of thirty five ain't that bad).

So there you go, the very precious six shots from one of my smaller series for all of you to savour. It is my small compensation to the community for not joining in the Midsumma Pride March today. For those who are marching today, may Pride be with all of you!